Continuing from his previous book on the subject, author and photographer Gerry Manning continues to share his and other's photographs of prop driven civil aircraft. As in the previous volume, not all that many of these are actually airliners in the sense of being with Eastern or BOAC, but they are more of what they become when no longer hauling people. It includes a number of ex-military types as well.

Not surprisingly, this one has quite a few fire bombers, and most of those are US or Canada based. It is here that you will see the S-2s, P-2s, P-3s, C-130s CL-215s and a few DC-4/6 types as well. Apparently Gerry hasn't been photographing all that long as there are few of the oldies in there, though there is a nice shot of stored B-26s and a Catalina or two. Not surprisingly, many of the older WWII types have either been grounded from dropping retardant, or snapped up by bottomless wallet war bird enthusiasts.

Next are a few Russian and Chinese types that he has photographed, but this is a short section that then goes into South American aircraft. Again, most of this is cargo stuff and here you will find C-46s, C-47s, F.27s and others. This is also a relatively short section.

The book finishes with cargo haulers. Most of these are planes operating in Canada and Alaska, where there is a need for rugged planes that can get in and out of dirt and gravel strips. Here you will find a lot of Douglas types like the DC-3/4/6/7 as well as some C-46s, a C-119 or two and a few other types. This to me was the most interesting section of the book as I was unaware that these old prop liners were still working so much. But apparently these types are the best for the job so continue to keep flying.

All the photos are full color and nicely photographed. It is a book of eye candy and one that any propeller driven airliner/cargo enthusiast will love to have in their collection. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing through it and I know you will as well.

February 2012

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